Work and Family Interface in the International Career Context

This book focuses on the interface of work and personal life of international professionals. The globalization of business has led to an increasing number of people who work in international roles either through working abroad on different kinds of assignments or through international travelling. This book provides novel knowledge on the topic from different perspectives, highlighting not only the inherent challenges but also the positive side of working in a modern globalized world. Moreover, the book contributes by bringing together international professionals' own experiences, family members' experiences, organizational aspects and new theoretical discussions and models. The book covers several different perspectives on the work and personal life interface offering insights on the areas like adjustment, social support, dual-career issues and organizational practices. The book examines the situations of several different types of international employee such as organizational expatriates, self-initiated expatriates and international business travellers. The new interesting research evidence is provided from various country contexts from North America, Europe and Asia by researchers around the world.

Chapter 1: Introduction; Liisa Mäkelä & Vesa Suutari.- Chapter 2: We Are Not On Vacation. How Much Have the Experiences of Expatriate Families Changed? Mila Lazarova, Yvonne McNulty and Monica Semeniuk.- Chapter 3: Adjustment of Spouses / Partners of Self-Initiated Expatriates: Feeling Different vs. Feeling Home; Jan Selmer and Jakob Lauring.- Chapter 4: Digging for Gold: Life Balance and Internationally Mobile Mining Professionals; Julia Richardson, Steve Mckenna and Carolyn Dickie.- Chapter 5: Dual-Career Couples in International Context; Agniezska Kierner.- Chapter 6. The Adjustment of Expatriate Families; Chris Brewster, Thomas Hippler and Arno Haslberger.- Chapter 7: International Business Travel and Work-Family Balance: New Avenues for the Research; Kati Saarenpää.- Chapter 8: Supervisor Support and Close People Support Enhancing Job Satisfaction Among Employees with International Business Travelling; Liisa Mäkelä, Helen De Cieri and Audra Mockaitis.- Chapter 9: Work-Life Management in MNCs; Helen De Cieri.- Chapter 10: Work-Family Conflict Across Different Countries with Reference to Gender and Gender Role Ideology; Ujvala Rajadhyaksha.- Chapter 11: Exploring and Explaining National Differences in Work-Life Satisfaction Levels; Mark Smith, Christelle Tornikoski and Catherine Jones. Chapter 12: Work-Life Balance in Japan; Wendy Smith.